Kids Artwork

Kids artwork. What do you do with it? I've been saving stuff in a box since my daughter was big enough to hold a crayon in her wee lil' hand. In fact, just last week I went through that box and weeded some stuff out. I didn't think it was necessary to keep four of the same "marble paint drawings" that she created when she was in preschool. Or the 8 separate pieces of paper that each only had one bumpy circle drawn on it in the same shade of Robin's Egg Blue.

But the pieces that really were important-- her first drawing of a person that consisted of a head with legs coming out of it, or her essay on tigers that included illustrations, or the letters and pictures that she drew for Santa, the Easter Bunny and all of their magical friends-- those things remained in the box.

It's hard to decide what to do with kids art. You hate to toss it in the trash.... it's a work of art! But if you keep every single item that comes home crinkled and folded in their back pack, you'll soon need to rent a storage locker!

Some of the art that comes home with her gets sent to Grandma and Grandpa.... some of it is hung on the refrigerator....some is used as wrapping paper for gifts for others.... some is framed and hanging on that wall (like this great one that she made in kindergarten):

This one particular piece came home that she had painted and I just loved the vibrant colors. I went out and bought an unfinished wooden tray at a craft store. I sanded and painted the tray and then cut the painting to size, so that it would fit nicely inside the tray. Using Mod Podge and a foam brush, I adhered the painting to the tray. After it dried, I gave the entire tray two more coats of Mod Podge, to seal the painting in, and ended up with a one of a kind tea tray!